Ratings Of Cuteness Research Articles

Women Approach Cute Objects but Avoid Cute Adult Female Faces: Verification of Correlation between Body Sway and Cuteness Rating

Perceived cuteness motivates people to approach cute objects, but no evidence exists of unconscious approach behavior toward objects. Given the unconscious responses associated with cuteness perception, an unconscious drive to physically approach cute objects is likely to occur. However, approach behavior may or may not occur depending on whether or not the perceived cute object is an adult, a baby, or a non-human. In this study, we recruited 24 participants and conducted a correlation study between cuteness ratings and body sway to examine whether or not the approach response is dependent on perceived cuteness. Results showed that the approach or avoidance response to cute objects was observed only in women. For babies, the approach response occurred regardless of the degree of cuteness, but for adult female faces, the cuter the face, the more the avoidance response occurred. For non-human images, the cuter the image, the more the approach response occurred only in early period of observation time. These results suggest that cuteness perception controls physical distance differently depending on the target of evaluation.

Spatial frequencies affect cuteness perception of infant faces.

Cuteness perception is a basic function in social interactions. Most studies focus on the impact of facial elemental features on cuteness ratings, but there are many factors that affect cuteness perception. Spatial frequency (SF) is one of the most important parameters in studies on faces. However, few studies have investigated the impact of SFs on cuteness perception. In this study, 16 images of infant faces with four cuteness levels were selected by a prerating experiment. Using a 7-point Likert scale paradigm, participants were asked to rate the cuteness of infant faces, including one version of broad unfiltered faces and four versions of filtered faces. The results showed that filtered SFs reduced cuteness ratings and that the impact of SFs was related to the cuteness levels of faces. Specifically, faces with low SFs got the lowest cuteness ratings. The ratings of faces with low SFs in neutral cuteness had a greater reduction than that in positive cuteness. In comparison, faces with medium and high SFs obtained relatively high cuteness ratings. However, the ratings in medium SFs were higher than that in high SFs if the cuteness of faces exceeded a certain level. Interestingly, their ratings reduction size increased with the improvement of cuteness levels. These results extend our understanding of the cuteness mechanism from an SF processing perspective. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Personality descriptions influence perceived cuteness of children and nurturing motivation toward them.

The current empirical evidence regarding the effects of personality on physical attractiveness is limited to adult faces. In two preregistered studies, we demonstrated that personality descriptions influenced perceived cuteness, warmth, competence of young children, and female adults' nurturing motivation toward them. Study 1 showed that participants rated children accompanied by positive personality descriptions as cuter, friendlier, and more intelligent than their initial ratings. Negative personality descriptions reduced perceived cuteness in children, which in turn reduced nurturing motivation. Study 2 showed that negative personality descriptions consistently reduced perceived cuteness and warmth ratings after manipulation, regardless of the initial level of perceived cuteness. After one week, cuteness and warmth ratings in the positive personality condition tended to return to their initial ratings. However, the effect of negative personality descriptions on cuteness ratings persisted for all children. Together, our findings suggest that female adults' perception of cuteness and nurturing motivation are induced not only by children's appearance but also their personality.

Changes in Cat Facial Morphology Are Related to Interaction with Humans.

We aimed to clarify the changes in facial morphology of cats in relation to their interactions with humans. In Study 1, we compared the facial morphology of cats (feral mixed breed, owned domestic mixed breed, and owned domestic purebreds) with that of African wildcats. After collecting 3295 photos, we found that owned domestic cats' noses were significantly shorter than those of African wildcats and feral mixed breed, and there were no significant differences between the latter two. The eye angles were significantly more gradual in owned domestic purebreds than in the other groups. In Study 2, we examined the correlation between facial morphology and years with the owner, and found that the former is not affected by the latter. This suggests that changes in facial morphology are possibly transgenerational changes. The difference in facial morphology between wildcats and owned cats might be caused by domestication, and that between feral cats and owned cats might be due to feralization. In Study 3, we investigated whether cats' facial features affect cuteness ratings. We asked human participants to evaluate the cuteness of cats' face images and found that faces with shorter nose lengths were considered cuter. This suggests that owned domestic cats' facial morphology is preferred by humans.

Kindchenschema and cuteness elicit interest in caring for and playing with young children, but less so when children are masked

Cuteness in the young has long been theorized to elicit care and protection. Most research on this topic has focused on human infants, despite theories suggesting that cuteness may elicit broader social interest that could support learning and development beyond infancy. In four experiments (N = 531 adults, 98 children), we tested whether ‘kindchenschema’—facial features associated with cuteness—and perceived cuteness elicit interest in playing with and caring for children, and whether masks disrupt these processes. Participants viewed images of children’s faces, masked or unmasked. Kindchenschema correlated with perceived cuteness and age, and these variables predicted adults’ interest in playing with and caring for children. Masks did not reduce cuteness ratings or interest in children, although they weakened relations between perceived cuteness and interest, and between perceived age and interest. Cuteness and related signals may guide adults’ interactions with children, fostering learning and development.

Creation and Validation of the Japanese Cute Infant Face (JCIF) Dataset.

Research interest in cuteness perception and its effects on subsequent behavior and physiological responses has recently been increasing. The purpose of the present study was to produce a dataset of Japanese infant faces that are free of portrait rights and can be used for cuteness research. A total of 80 original facial images of 6-month-old infants were collected from their parents. The cuteness level of each picture was rated on a 7-point scale by 200 Japanese people (100 men and 100 women in their 20s–60s). Prototypical high- and low-cuteness faces were created by averaging the top 10 and bottom 10 faces according to the mean cuteness ratings. Then, 50 composite faces were made by mixing two faces randomly chosen from the 60 unused middle-cuteness faces. The normative cuteness ratings of these composite faces were obtained from 229 Japanese men and women in their 20s–60s. The shape of each composite face was transformed to be cuter (+50%) or less cute (–50%) along a continuum between the high- and low-cuteness prototypical faces. A two-alternative forced-choice task (N = 587) confirmed that cuteness discrimination was better than the chance level for all 50 face pairs. Moreover, the results showed that young men had poorer sensitivity to cuteness differences in infant faces than older men and women of any age. This Japanese Cute Infant Face (JCIF, “jay-sif”) dataset, including composite face images and normative rating scores, is publicly available online.

Animal Images Database: Validation of 120 Images for Human-Animal Studies.

Simple SummaryWith the general goal of increasing knowledge about how individuals perceive and evaluate different animals, we provide normative data on an extensive set of open-source animal images, spanning a total of 12 biological categories (e.g., mammals, insects, reptiles, arachnids), on 11 evaluative dimensions (e.g., valence, cuteness, capacity to think, acceptability to kill for human consumption). We found that animal evaluations were affected by individual characteristics of the perceiver, particularly gender, diet and companion animal ownership. Moral attitudes towards animals were predominantly predicted by ratings of cuteness, edibility, capacity to feel and familiarity. We hope this free resource may help advance research into the many different ways we relate to animals.There has been increasing interest in the study of human-animal relations. This contrasts with the lack of normative resources and materials for research purposes. We present subjective norms for a set of 120 open-source colour images of animals spanning a total of 12 biological categories (e.g., mammals, insects, reptiles, arachnids). Participants (N = 509, 55.2% female, MAge = 28.05, SD = 9.84) were asked to evaluate a randomly selected sub-set of 12 animals on valence, arousal, familiarity, cuteness, dangerousness, edibility, similarity to humans, capacity to think, capacity to feel, acceptability to kill for human consumption and feelings of care and protection. Animal evaluations were affected by individual characteristics of the perceiver, particularly gender, diet and companion animal ownership. Moral attitudes towards animals were predominantly predicted by ratings of cuteness, edibility, capacity to feel and familiarity. The Animal Images Database (Animal.ID) is the largest open-source database of rated images of animals; the stimuli set and item-level data are freely available online.

Ethnic effects when facing children: An ERP study

Abundant research has highlighted a disadvantage experienced by children of ethnic minority groups in, for example, educational and health care settings. In order to understand implicit attitudes that contribute to ethnic disparities, underlying neural correlates have been widely studied. However, this has been limited to the context of adults. Using a sample of nulliparous Caucasian females (N = 46), the current study is the first to examine how early attentional and facial perceptual processing stages, assessed with event-related brain potentials (ERPs), differentiate for stimuli of young ingroup (of the same ethnicity) or outgroup (of a different ethnicity) children. Additionally, we assessed how a differentiation in ERPs may relate to subsequent adult responsiveness to children by measuring both cuteness ratings and motivation to view child faces. Similar to previous findings for adult facial stimuli, we found significant differences in attentional (N200) and facial perceptual (N170) processing when adults were faced with children of different ethnicities. Furthermore, increased differentiation in attentional processing (N200) for ingroup and outgroup children was associated with reduced cuteness ratings of outgroup children. Importantly however, participants showed no overall preference for ingroup child faces, as motivation to view child faces was even greater towards outgroup child faces. In addition, increased self-reported motivation for parental care was related to enhanced cuteness appraisals of outgroup child faces. Taken together, these findings reveal how early social categorization processes may lead to biased behavior when interacting with children of ethnic minorities.

The impact of facial abnormalities and their spatial position on perception of cuteness and attractiveness of infant faces.

Research has demonstrated that how “cute” an infant is perceived to be has consequences for caregiving. Infants with facial abnormalities receive lower ratings of cuteness, but relatively little is known about how different abnormalities and their location affect these aesthetic judgements. The objective of the current study was to compare the impact of different abnormalities on the perception of infant faces, while controlling for infant identity. In two experiments, adult participants gave ratings of cuteness and attractiveness in response to face images that had been edited to introduce common facial abnormalities. Stimulus faces displayed either a haemangioma (a small, benign birth mark), strabismus (an abnormal alignment of the eyes) or a cleft lip (an abnormal opening in the upper lip). In Experiment 1, haemangioma had less of a detrimental effect on ratings than the more severe abnormalities. In Experiment 2, we manipulated the position of a haemangioma on the face. We found small but robust effects of this position, with abnormalities in the top and on the left of the face receiving lower cuteness ratings. This is consistent with previous research showing that people attend more to the top of the face (particularly the eyes) and to the left hemifield.

Changes in face-specific neural processing explain reduced cuteness and approachability of infants with cleft lip

ABSTRACTThe current study investigated whether changes in the neural processing of faces of infants with a facial abnormality – a cleft lip – mediate effects of the cleft lip on judgments of infant cuteness and approachability. Event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to pictures of faces of healthy infants and infants with a cleft lip, and ratings of cuteness and approachability of these infant faces, were obtained from 30 females. Infants with a cleft lip were rated as less attractive (less cute and approachable) than healthy infants, and both the N170 and P2 components of the ERP were of reduced amplitude in response to pictures of infants with a cleft lip. Importantly, decreased configural processing of infant faces with a cleft lip, as evidenced by reduced N170 amplitudes, mediated the reduced attractiveness ratings for infants with a cleft lip compared to healthy infants. Our findings help elucidate the mechanisms behind the less favorable responses to infants with a cleft lip, highlighting the role of face-specific rather than domain-general neural processes.

The Canine Cuteness Effect: Owner-Perceived Cuteness as a Predictor of Human–Dog Relationship Quality

ABSTRACTThe modern domestic dog's primary function is as a human companion. A strong human–dog relationship may be beneficial to both parties but not all relationships are successful. There is currently no consensus on why some dog–owner relationships flourish and others fail, but relationship quality may be partly influenced by canine characteristics. The extent to which canine cuteness and canine personality factors predict human–dog relationship quality was examined. In study 1, 668 dog owners completed two relationship-quality surveys, rated their dog's personality and physical cuteness, and were invited to submit a photograph of their dog. Personality measures and cuteness ratings predicted each measure of relationship quality, with cuteness being the strongest unique predictor in three of seven standard multiple regression models (all p<0.001). In study 2, 873 independent participants were presented with one of 42 images selected from those provided in study 1. Participants rated the dog's cuteness and its likely personality attributes. Strangers (M=6.69, SD=0.83) typically rated each dog as being less cute than did the owner (M=8.93, SD=1.80; t(41)=7.39, p<0.001, two tailed), and how cute they perceived the dog to be influenced their ratings of some aspects of its likely personality. Measures of relationship quality provided by owners were not significantly associated with stranger cuteness ratings or with the degree of difference between owner and stranger cuteness ratings. These results suggest a bi-directional relationship between perceived cuteness and other attributes: cute dogs are perceived to have more desirable personality traits, but having a strong relationship with a dog may also inflate its perceived cuteness. These findings have implications for those involved in dog breeding, selection, and training, as well as shelter management.

Baby schema in human and animal faces induces cuteness perception and gaze allocation in children.

The baby schema concept was originally proposed as a set of infantile traits with high appeal for humans, subsequently shown to elicit caretaking behavior and to affect cuteness perception and attentional processes. However, it is unclear whether the response to the baby schema may be extended to the human-animal bond context. Moreover, questions remain as to whether the cute response is constant and persistent or whether it changes with development. In the present study we parametrically manipulated the baby schema in images of humans, dogs, and cats. We analyzed responses of 3–6 year-old children, using both explicit (i.e., cuteness ratings) and implicit (i.e., eye gaze patterns) measures. By means of eye-tracking, we assessed children’s preferential attention to images varying only for the degree of baby schema and explored participants’ fixation patterns during a cuteness task. For comparative purposes, cuteness ratings were also obtained in a sample of adults. Overall our results show that the response to an infantile facial configuration emerges early during development. In children, the baby schema affects both cuteness perception and gaze allocation to infantile stimuli and to specific facial features, an effect not simply limited to human faces. In line with previous research, results confirm human positive appraisal toward animals and inform both educational and therapeutic interventions involving pets, helping to minimize risk factors (e.g., dog bites).

Aesthetic and Incentive Salience of Cute Infant Faces: Studies of Observer Sex, Oral Contraception and Menstrual Cycle

Infant cuteness can influence adult-infant interaction and has been shown to activate reward centres in the brain. In a previous study, we found men and women to be differentially sensitive to small differences in infant facial cuteness, with reproductive hormone status as the potential underlying cause. It is unclear, however, whether reproductive hormone status impacts on the aesthetic and incentive salience of infant faces.To address this question, we conducted two interlinked studies. We used static images of the same smiling and neutral-looking infant faces in both a rating task, in which participants had to rate the cuteness of infant faces (aesthetic salience - ‘liking’), and a key-press task, in which participants could prolong or shorten viewing time of infant faces by rapid alternating key-presses (incentive salience - ‘wanting’).In a first study, we compared the performance of men, women who are taking oral contraceptives, and regularly cycling women. In this study, we found a significant correlation between cuteness ratings within and between groups, which implies that participants had the same concept of cuteness. Cuteness ratings and effort to look at faces was linked regardless of sex and reproductive hormone status, in that cute faces were looked at for longer than less cute faces. A happy facial expression contributed only marginally to the incentive salience of the face.To explore the potential impact of reproductive hormone status in more detail, we followed a subset of regularly cycling women during the menstrual, follicular and luteal phases of their cycle. The aesthetic and incentive salience of infant faces did not change across the menstrual cycle.Our findings suggest that reproductive hormone status does not modulate the aesthetic and incentive value of infant faces.

Chinese infant facial cues

Infant facial cues may have evolved as a signalling device used by both infants (to solicit care) and parents (to inform decisions about parental care). Unfortunately, virtually all of the data so far collected has been Caucasian adults rating Caucasian infants. To address this, the current study examined Caucasian and Chinese adults’ perceptions and ratings of Chinese infant faces using the Hypothetical Adoption Paradigm. As predicted, Caucasian adults gave higher ratings of adoption preference. Caucasian adults also gave higher ratings of cuteness and happiness. Also as predicted, men gave higher average ratings of resemblance than women, suggesting that men find that infants resemble themselves more than women do. These results highlight the potential contributions of both culture and evolved adaptations on adult perceptions, and support the need for further research using non-Caucasian adults and infants.

Adults' perceptions of infant sex and cuteness

Five experiments were conducted to investigate the relationship between infant sex and adults' perceptions of infant physical attractiveness. College students rated the cuteness and/or sex of male and female infants at each of six age levels: 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13 months. The results indicated that (a) subjects had little difficulty assigning a sex label to infants, although in some instances the assigned label was incorrect; (b) older infants received higher cuteness ratings than younger infants; (c) cuter infants were more likely to be perceived as female than male; (d) Labeled Males received higher cuteness ratings than Labeled Females, although this effect was stronger for Perceived Males than for Perceived Females; and (e) perceived cuteness influenced perceived sex. Results are interpreted as generally supporting the existence of a sex stereotype related to physical attractiveness.